


Budding Romance: Epilogue

by Chinchela



Series: Budding Romance Series [2]
Category: Lore Olympus (Webcomic)
Genre: F/M, Marijuana Use, More Hermes than you can handle, Sorry!, Zero Smut this time, tons of fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-14
Updated: 2020-06-14
Packaged: 2021-03-03 20:01:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,876
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24691195
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chinchela/pseuds/Chinchela
Summary: Knock-knockity-knock-knock!“I’ll get it!”Artemis made her way out of the kitchen where she left Persephone to continue baking.She knew that familiar knock. With a friendly smile she opened the door to see exactly who she expected. Messy red hair, messenger bag, winged shoes and the lovable goofy grin that tied them all together in the package that was Hermes.“Hey! Hermes!” She greeted him and opened the door wider. She crossed her arms casually popping her hip out to one side.“Hey Arty! Is Persephone home?” the messenger God peeked behind her into the house, rolling up onto the balls of his feet hoping to spot his tiny pink friend, “I have a delivery for her!” He smiled mischievously while holding up an envelope with “Persephone” written on it.
Relationships: Artemis/Hermes (Lore Olympus), Hermes/Persephone (Lore Olympus)
Series: Budding Romance Series [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1786366
Comments: 3
Kudos: 18





	Budding Romance: Epilogue

**Knock-knockity-knock-knock!**

“I’ll get it!”

Artemis made her way out of the kitchen where she left Persephone to continue baking.  
She knew that familiar knock. With a friendly smile she opened the door to see exactly who she expected. Messy red hair, messenger bag, winged shoes and the loveable goofy grin that tied them all together in the package that was Hermes. 

“Hey! Hermes!” She greeted him and opened the door wider. She crossed her arms casually popping her hip out to one side.

“Hey Arty! Is Persephone home?” the messenger God peeked behind her into the house, rolling up onto the balls of his feet hoping to spot his tiny pink friend, “I have a delivery for her!” He smiled mischievously while holding up an envelope with “Persephone” written on it. 

“Oh, yeah, she’s home.” Artemis stepped back into the house a bit to call over her shoulder. 

“Persephone! Hermes is here!” 

Faster than Artemis thought appropriate, Persephone burst into the living room and bounded toward the front door, tucking a rag into the pocket of her flour dusted apron. With her arms open wide she pulled Hermes into a hug. 

“Hermes! It’s good to see you!” 

He returned the hug, picked her up for a moment and bounced her around before placing her back down. 

“It IS! Isn’t it?” He joked with a laugh before catching Artemis’ eyes which now looked less than entertained. 

“What brings you?” Persephone smiled. She noticed a cloud of flour dusting the front of Hermes’ sweatshirt that had obviously transferred from their hug. She fussily patted the front of his shirt to clean it off, “...Oh sugar snaps. Im sorry!” 

“It’s okay! Now we match!” he laughed, “Do I get _flowers_ in my hair too?” 

“Is there flour in your hair??” Persephone fussed more, tiptoeing to see where else she may have left residual powder. 

“No..No! _Flowers_! In your hair. _Flour_. Flower? Get it? This joke would have worked better via text…” He admitted rubbing his neck with a chuckle. Before his joke could fall any flatter, he changed the subject quickly. 

As if performing a magic trick, he flourished the “Persephone” labeled envelope into view and suavely gestured it out to it’s adorable recipient. 

“A letter for you!” 

Soft pink hands took the envelope gingerly and she looked at her name written across the front. 

“Who’s it from?” Persephone asked eagerly. 

“Me!” He proclaimed excitedly,“...and that was my last delivery for the day! I’m officially off work! Care if I hang out?” 

Artemis squinted. 

“I don’t mind! I was just making cookies!” the Goddess of Spring explained, tearing open the envelope. Artemis made a suspicious expression while the two waited anxiously for her approval. She was the boss after all. 

After an awkward few moments, Artemis dropped her arms to her sides with an exasperated sigh, “I guess it’s fine….Just for a little bit though!” 

“Yay!” Persephone squealed and trotted back into the kitchen, “Come on! The oven is preheated! Also this envelope is empty?!” Persephone laughed in confusion. Artemis slugged Hermes in the shoulder. 

“I knew you were up to something!” 

Hermes could only laugh and hold his hands up defensively. 

“Guilty!” 

Before Artemis could sock him again he swiftly galavanted into the kitchen. 

“Ah! I see you’re into a different kind of getting baked these days!” He joked openly. Persephone spun around and slammed her hands over his mouth, sputtering embarrassed shushes.

_Such a troublemaker!_

“Sorry! I couldn’t help myself!” he whispered harshly through stifled laughter. Artemis followed behind him and stood in the doorway with her arms crossed looking unimpressed. She couldn’t keep up the grumpy expression when she watched Hermes pick up the tiny black puff curled up on one of the dining chairs. The puff stretched in his arms and began to purr. He ruffled up Retsina’s thick fur and mashed his face into the garden of midnight fluff that was her tummy. 

“You’re gonna lose an eye…” She warned jokingly. 

“Can I trade it for U?” Hermes flirted before cursing to himself, “Damn it! I need to start texting more!” 

Another slug to the shoulder followed by laughter.

The trio spent several minutes making idle chit chat in the kitchen while Persephone blobbed cookie dough dollops onto the prepared cookie sheet and Hermes sneakily blobbed cookie dough dollops into his mouth.

_...could have sworn there was more here_

Persephone slid the metal baking pan into the oven and set a hand wound egg timer shaped like a cat. 

Eventually the group migrated into the living room to chat until the timer was finished. 

**Ding!**

“I’ll go check the cookies!” Persephone declared, hopping off the couch and skipping into the kitchen. 

“Okay. I’ll be right back, I’m going to change.” Artemis stated and slipped away down the hall. Hermes eyed the hallway and waited. 

**Click.**

Artemis’ bedroom door closed. Hermes grinned. 

He casually flipped and laid upside down on the couch with his long legs draped over the back. He snatched Artemis’ phone from the coffee table where she had left it. 

**Click! Click! Click!** Hermes made one goofy face after another, filling the phone’s gallery with ridiculous photos of himself. Once satisfied with his collection, he selected the best/worst one and saved it as the wallpaper before sneakily returning the phone back to its place. 

“That smells good, Persephone!” Artemis said, coming back to the kitchen from the hallway wearing a slouchier casual outfit. 

“Thank you! They are nearly finished now. Just a few more minutes,” the pink Goddess informed while taking a peek through the oven window at her slowly browning cookies. She set the timer again. 

“I can’t waaaaaaait!” Hermes' wails could be heard from the living room. Artemis peeked her head out of the kitchen doorway to see him laying improperly over the back of her sofa. 

“Hey. Knucklehead! Sit like a normal person!” Moments after Artemis pulled her head back around the corner, she heard the distant voice of Hermes once more. 

“You’re not my mom!” he cackled. In a frenzy Artemis ripped through the kitchen doorway and made a mad stomp for the couch. It all happened so fast, Hermes couldn’t even sit up properly before Artemis stood over the back of the couch looking down on him. She grabbed his legs and threw them forward, thrusting Hermes off the couch entirely and onto his face on the floor. 

“No...But I can tell your mom you’re being a dipshit!” she folded her arms indignantly. She could only roll her eyes when she heard a familiar snicker from the other side of the plush sofa. 

“Pfft. Go for it! My mom says I’m perfect!” he said, sitting up properly and “fixing” his hair; which mostly consisted of shaking his head wildly and running his fingers through it a few times to get it out of his eyes. 

“Perfectly _obnoxious_!” Artemis threw a pillow from the couch at him playfully. 

“Guilty again!” 

Hermes got to his feet and tossed the pillow back to Artemis. 

**Ding-da-Ding!**

“Cookies are done!” a delicate voice called out from afar. Artemis instantly rushed back into the kitchen like a mother hen. 

“I’ll help you!” 

“Relax Arty! Persephone has her cooking permission slip signed!” he teased. The messy haired **knucklehead** entered the kitchen behind Artemis with his hands stuffed in his hoodie pockets. 

Artemis spun on her heels facing Hermes with her hands firmly placed on her hips. An assertive purple finger pointed directly in his face. She opened her mouth to argue but stopped when she spotted Retsina’s tiny adorable face poking out of the neck of Hermes’ sweatshirt. 

“How long has she been in there?!” she hollered incredulously. Hermes only shrugged with a smile and carried the kitty further into the kitchen past Artemis’ finger-sass. Persephone had already taken the cookies from the oven by now, quietly watching her friends banter with each other. 

“Hook me up, girl!” Hermes shamelessly begged, while standing across the counter from Persephone holding his mouth open for her to feed him a cookie. Artemis scoffed at his childish behavior. 

_Or maybe she was jealous. Who knows? Certainly not her._

Persephone only laughed and continued moving the cookies to the cooling sheet. 

“They still need to cool, silly!” Using one hand still equipped with a polka-dot oven mitt, she gently tapped his chin to close his mouth. “You’ll just have to wait a bit longer.” 

Suddenly a soft tune could be heard coming from the living room.

“Ah! It’s my phone!” the Goddess of the Hunt set out in search of her cell phone. Snatching it up from the coffee table, she answered without even looking at the caller ID. Hermes and Persephone remained in the kitchen silence. A loud purr could be heard rumbling from inside Hermes sweatshirt. 

Hermes leaned toward the kitchen doorway, eavesdropping on Artemis’ phone call. He could tell by Persephone’s expression she was doing the same. 

“Hello?...”

**pause**

“Oh hey! I was hoping you’d call!” 

Hermes furrowed his brow. 

**Who is it?**

“Yea! Just one second!” 

Persephone looked to Hermes expression and gave him a confused look. They heard Artemis approaching the kitchen. The ‘absolutely not-eavesdropping’ friends ‘without-benefits’ feigned innocence as Artemis covered the receiver of her cell phone. 

“I’ve gotta take this call.” she whispered loudly. She looked pointedly at Hermes, “Behave,” and with that she was back down the hallway to her room. 

Hermes looked at Persephone. 

Persephone looked at Hermes. 

Hermes looked at the cookies. 

Persephone raised an eyebrow at Hermes. 

Hermes looked back at Persephone and then squinted, focusing on something behind her. She instinctively turned to see what caught his eye and in that brief moment, a sneaky red hand snatched one of the cookies from the cooling rack. He jammed the entire thing in his mouth in time for Persephone to turn back around, confused when she found nothing out of the ordinary behind her. 

Hermes made a face. His eyes watered. Persephone looked down at the cooling try and more specifically at the space where a cookie used to be. She snapped her eyes back up to meet Hermes who swallowed loudly and burst out panting. 

“Hoooooottttt!!” He whined. 

“Serves you right for stealing that cookie!!” Persephone scolded, “I caught you red handed!” The irony of the phrase was not lost on Hermes. The joke was an old one but was way cuter when Persephone said it. 

Wiping away his tears, he laughed and ducked, dodging Persephone as she jovially slapped at him with both hands. 

“Mercy! Mercy! I am but a humble messenger with a weakness for sweets and cute girls! You set me up for failure!” He laughed scurrying into the living room away from the pink helicopter chopping after him. The roughhousing died down and the laughter soon quelled. 

“Stay right here.” Persephone commanded and scuttled off to her room, returning quickly with a nicely packaged box. She handed it out to Hermes. 

“Here. I promise my delivery isn’t empty!” she teased and plopped down next to him on the couch. Hermes held his hand to his stomach as if taking a punch and laughed. He loved that Persephone didn’t seem to mind his sense of humor and teasing, but he loved it even more when she dished it back out to him. 

He turned his attention back to the box in his lap. 

“What is it?” 

“I made these cookies _special_ , just for you..” Persephone confessed.

Hermes scooted in closer to her. 

“Special...for me?” Hermes repeated with a big smile on his face. 

“Mmhm!” Persephone affirmed and removed the lid revealing inside perfectly baked chocolate chip cookies. Hermes playfully opened his mouth wide and closed his eyes, encouraging the tiny Goddess to feed him one. A giggle met his ears just before he felt the touch of one delicious cookie against his bottom lip. Skillfully he pulled the entire cookie into his mouth and began chewing. 

“Slow down you dork! You’ll choke!!” She implored humorously. 

“I did my waiting! Choking to death on cookies made by you would be fine by me!” He laughed, cramming another one in his mouth. 

Persephone watched his throat bob as he swallowed and she bit her lip.

“Mmm! These are delicious! You’re the best!” he cheered, chomping down on another.

“It’s nothing really,” Persephone replied with a slight smile. She moved her gaze back to the box of sweets in his lap. She panicked suddenly, noticing Hermes had eaten so many more than she realized. 

“Slow down! Hermes! Don’t eat them all at once!” She squawked. Theatrically she snatched the box away from him. 

“-- but they are so good!” He whined and watched his cookies make their escape.

_...but DAMN was the get-away-car HOT!_

He audaciously checked out Persephone’s super fine booty as she confiscated his treat and took it into the kitchen. 

Without warning, the room decided to lay down on its side, or rather Hermes did. With pupils blown wide, he stared ahead of him vacantly for a moment. It may have been longer than a moment, he wasn’t entirely sure. 

Persephone returned to the living room and could only chuckle knowingly at the sight before her. She knelt down eye level with Hermes and smiled. 

“How are you feeling…?” 

Hermes only replied with a long low chortle. She put a hand on his cheek and gave him a gentle pat. 

“Good?”

“Hahahah...Yea….Good...Hey Pillsbury, what didja put in those cookies?” Hermes asked drowsily, his eyes half-lidded and droopy. 

“Something special just for you...Although I guess maybe I should have warned you before you inhaled over half the box like a pig!” she teased him relentlessly, payback for when he let her munch on a nugget of marijuana without knowing! 

“You….” He began. A wobbly red finger pointed at her face, “...You, Little Miss Mischief.…”  
His hand fell to the floor with a plop, “....you’re...ssssssssssssneakkyyy….!” the stoned God slurred before he erupted into another bout of giggling. 

“Shh! Hermes! You don’t want Artemis to come back out here do you? I hear she’s a real buzzkill,” the sassy Goddess whispered harshly with a soft laugh, checking over her shoulder. Hermes wiped away a tear from his cheek and sat up clumsily. His hair was tossed messily in a chaotic way that was so utterly Hermes. The dopey grin on his face was even more so. 

He cocked an eyebrow and tilted his head at her. 

“Well now that you’ve got me all drugged up, what is my fate, fair maiden?” He took a hard swallow halfway through his sentence. Stretching his legs out straight, his body slumped down using the foot of the couch as an upper back rest. 

“It’s to the stocks for you!” she chuckled as she stood upright once more. She took both his wrists in her hands and using all her strength attempted to pull Hermes to his feet. 

“...and what is my crime this time?” he replied coyly while giving her a challenging eyebrow. He hadn’t budged since she began trying to move him. Smiling at her cuteness, Hermes pulled against her and yanked her into his lap, one knee on either side of him. Persephone yelped as she dropped and was now face to face with a pair of puckered up fishy-lips 

Her open palm met his face and jokingly shoved him away.

“Nothing. I just wanted to see you in shackles…” she winked with a giggle. The two burst into a howling fit of laughter. Hermes wrapped his arms around her and hugged her sloppily. The room was still on its side, or trying to be, but Hermes was determined to keep gravity the way the Gods intended it. 

“You’re so badass,” He laughed, leaning his head against hers not really on purpose. 

“What’s so funny?” Artemis asked while making a turn into the living room. 

“Nothing!!” Persephone shrieked.

Artemis looked over the room and then down to the floor where she found her two absolutely innocent buddies sitting on the floor not at all in a compromising position. Persephone sat upright stiff, awkward and looked guilty as a zebra. Hermes on the other hand looked more relaxed than she has maybe...ever seen him. She watched him sway, as he repeated after Persephone. 

“Nothiiiiing--” 

“Are you HIGH?!” Artemis scowled and kicked the room back onto its side, or Hermes rather. 

“You KNOW I don’t allow that shit in my house!” she roared before rolling his limp body across the room toward the door.

“Artemis wait! You can’t let him _fly home_ like that!” Persephone pleaded, rushing to Hermes’ other side to stop the rolling.

“He’s done it before! He can do it again!” The ever intolerant Artemis strained as she pushed his chest against Persephone’s might.

A low sound began to squeak from Hermes before he disintegrated into another _admittedly adorable_ giggling fit. Persephone could only laugh with him giving her room mate an apologetic smile. Artemis couldn’t even be mad at him anymore. Not while he was giggling like a child in a heap on the floor, no matter how he wound up there. She resigned to join in the giggling. 

“Ok but seriously. Get out.”

**Author's Note:**

> HUGE THANK YOU to Oceans_Away and Diz for help with dialogue and editing! Seriously @_@ I wrote this shit while high and it needed help.


End file.
